Twitter Love

Posted at 12:59 PM on June 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Sports

Kevin Love, last year's lone bright spot in the season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, is making a bigger splash on Twitter than any other pro athlete.

Last week, you may recall, he broke the news that Kevin McHale had been fired as coach of the team.

Today, he offered up another scoop.

Rubio is Ricky Rubio, the hotshot European whom the Wolves plucked with the 5th pick in yesterday's NBA rookie draft, trading two of the team's players to get him.

AS ESPN reported, it's not exactly love at first site between the kid and the Twin Cities:

Shortly after the pick, Rubio met the media. At a moment like that, tradition, public relations sense, and just about everything else dictate smiling and saying how much you love your new city -- even if you can't wait to demand a trade.

But the 18-year-old Spaniard was not playing that game. "Are you excited to go to Minnesota?" he was asked.

It was a fair question. It's a team with quality big men, and a mandate for change. What more could a young point guard want? "I'm excited," he responded, "to come to the NBA."

It was a critical pick for David Kahn, the new general manager of the team, who needed to show that his regime is the end of years of incompetence for the forlorn franchise at Target Center. But it will apparently cost Rubio too much to buy his way out of his contract with a European team.

Whoops.

Love's "tweet" must've sent more fans than me heading for the exits. A few minutes later, he tried to talk us in from the ledge.

All of that aside, Love is quickly endearing himself to sports fans (at least those on Twitter) in the Twin Cities. Twitter allows an athlete closer contact with fans than ever before. Whether that's a good or bad thing, we'll see. But right now he's the best beat writer in the Twin Cities.

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Comments (3)

The tweet about Rubio's padre is not a scoop -- it was a widely reported comment spoken to Spanish reporters last night.

http://www.marca.com/2009/06/26/baloncesto/nba/1245982412.html

To my knowledge, the only Kevin Love scoop was the McHale non-renewal news, and that was probably an oversight on Love's part.

Posted by CaliGuy | June 26, 2009 1:53 PM

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Yep. Love didn't intend to break the McHale news:

"Love explained how he Twittered that Kevin McHale was fired. McHale called him and Love thought the story was already out."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/danpatrick/blog/68841/index.html

Posted by CaliGuy | June 26, 2009 2:28 PM

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Are there any other MN pro sports players who tweet on a regular basis?

Posted by N8K | June 29, 2009 9:38 AM

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